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With the global population expected to reach 9 billion by the middle of the century, food production needs to increase by at least 60% to ensure food security for everyone. In response to this global challenge, the GEF is positioned to influence transformational change for sustainable agriculture.
This priority forms part of the new GEF-6 climate change mitigation and sustainable land management strategy, which will support efforts reduce GHG emissions and to control and prevent land degradation in agricultural production landscapes. Specifically, the GEF’s strategy will focus on areas where agricultural and rangeland management practices underpin the livelihoods of poor rural farmers and pastoralists.
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Climate change directly impacts food security and is the effects of global warming are already being seen in the yields of crucial crops.
GEF-6 will support climate smart agriculture and offer the agriculture sector a wide variety of opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Three such actions include:
- Applying innovative financial and market instruments to implement sustainable land management practices to reduce GHG emissions and increase sequestration of carbon on smallholder farms;
- Improved management of agricultural, rangeland and pastoral land through maintenance of soil organic matter;
- Increased availability of technologies and practices for crop, tree and livestock production which increase ecosystem services.
The strategy aims to reduce emissions from production landscapes, which today account for 40% of the world’s terrestrial surface. It will also promote measures to store carbon in farmlands and reduce the emission of nitrous oxide and methane from crop and livestock production – both potent greenhouse gases.
Current farming methods cannot provide food security for a growing population. Sustainable agriculture is therefore critical.
Today, farming accounts for around a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions from land use, and is responsible for 70% of the world’s water consumption. Furthermore, it is estimated that agriculture is responsible for 80% of deforestation worldwide.
Such unsustainable land practices are a major driver of land degradation, and threaten the livelihood of the 2.6 billion people who depend on its productivity for survival.
In 2014-2018, the GEF will focus support on helping countries to avoid further land degradation as well as working to restore that which is already degraded along with climate change adaptation and enhancing food security. This will be achieved through reducing agricultural GHG emissions, carbon sequestration and maintaining biodiversity within the agricultural landscape.